Taking a page out of the Snapchat playbook, Facebook has now allowed users of its Messenger app to send “Secret Conversations“. These conversations allow users to be able to send encrypted conversations that, like Snapchat, disappear after a set amount of time. David Marcus, Facebook’s head of Messenger, said this feature is a way to provide additional privacy and security to messages.
Social media users who have access to Messenger can access this feature from within a normal conversation by tapping the name of the friend they’re having a conversation with and then scrolling down to the “Secret Conversations” feature. Once this is done, a new window will appear and the amount of time the person wants the message to be viewable (once opened) can be chosen. Time options range from five seconds to over six hours. Once selected, the message can be sent by the user.